The Level of Moral Competence Among Sample of Hashemite University Students
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by CSCanada.net: E-Journals (Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture,... ISSN 1712-8056[Print] Canadian Social Science ISSN 1923-6697[Online] Vol. 10, No. 1, 2014, pp. 159-164 www.cscanada.net DOI:10.3968/j.css.1923669720141001.4096 www.cscanada.org The Level of Moral Competence Among Sample of Hashemite University Students Ahmad M. Mahasneh[a],* [a]PhD. Tutor. Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Lennick and Kiel (2005) define moral intelligence Education Sciences, Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan. as “the mental capacity to determine how universal *Corresponding author. human principles —like those embodied by the “Golden Received 12 October 2013; accepted 23 January 2014 Rule”— should be applied to our personal values, goals, and actions”. Their construct of moral intelligence Abstract consists of four competencies related to integrity, three to The primary purpose of this study was to determine the responsibility, two to forgiveness and one to compassion. level of students’ about moral competence at Hashemite Moral behavior is the result of at least four component University in Jordan. A total of 909 university students processes: (1) identifying a situation as a moral problem, participated in the study by completing the moral (2) figuring out what one ought to do and evaluating competence questionnaire. Results indicate that university possible plans of action, (3) evaluating how the various students showed medium level of moral competence. courses of action serve moral and no moral values and Additionally, results indicated that there were significant deciding which action will be pursued, and (4) executing differences in participants’ level of moral competence the plan of action (Rest, 1983). based on the demographics of gender, academic level and To define the moral competence concept one has to academic performance. The study ends by suggesting a understand how the term “competence” is defined in number of practical and theoretical recommendations for general. The concept of competence includes, at least, a number of stakeholders. two levels: competence can be understood as a possession of any knowledge, as the ability to reason on a certain Moral competence; Integrity; Impression Key words: problem. Competence can also be considered as an Management; Responsibility; University students experience in a certain sphere, ability to act, or behave in a proper way (Sadokova, 2001; Weinert, 2001). Dr. Ahmad M. Mahasneh (2014). The Level of Moral Competence Petrovskaya (1989, 1996) defines three components Among Sample of Hashemite University students. Canadian Social Science, 10(1), 159-164. Available from: http://www.cscanada. of communication competence: 1) self-competence, that net/index.php/css/article/view/j.css.1923669720141001.4096 is orientation in their own communicative abilities and DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/j.css.1923669720141001.4096 features, in own psychological potential; 2) competence of communication partner is an orientation in psychological features and abilities of other people; and 3) competence of situation, that is adequate situation and its tasks recognition. INTRODUCTION Moral competence refers to the orientation to perform Moral intelligence refers to the ability to apply ethical altruistic behavior and the ability to judge moral issues principles to goals, values and actions. However it has logically, consistently and at an advanced level of the potential to improve understanding of learning and development. Promotion of moral competence fosters the culturally acceptable behavior. Moral intelligence is newer development of a sense of justice and altruistic behavior and less studied than the more established cognitive, in adolescents. There are two key concepts of moral emotional and social intelligences, (Coles, 1997; Hass, competence: altruism and moral-judgment development. 1998; Clarken, 2009). For Ma (1997), altruistic behavior refers to the acts carried out voluntarily without expectation of a reward. 159 Copyright © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture The Level of Moral Competence Among Sample of Hashemite University students Ma suggested that the most important goal of altruism and feelings. of moral situation comprehension, may be is one of the following: increasing one’s Darwinian defined by its three components (Sadokova, 2001): fitness; facilitating the development of higher stages of Self-competence : the ability to adequately perceive cognition, morality, ego and so forth; assisting in attaining oneself as a subject of moral interaction, to realize one’s new psychological abilities; increasing the gratification interests, intentions, aims, motives, feelings and value of basic psychological and self actualization needs; and definitions caused by moral conflict and possible ways of assisting in restoring and maintaining emotional stability. behaving in a situation involving a moral choice. According to the theory of Kohlberg (1981, 1984), moral Competence in partner: an ability to perceive other judgment mainly refers to the delineation of rule and individuals participating in that situation, to understand law orientation, personal autonomy, moral conscience, their aims, interests, motives, feelings, system of values social contract, basic rights and universal justice. There and possible actions adequately. are three moral levels in Kohlberg’s theory (1971), and Competence in situation: assumes an ability to have an each level consists of two stages. These six stages of integrated view of the situation, to analyze consequences moral development start with children blindly obeying of events, to comprehend the values and norms, which an authority’s commands to avoid punishment gradually participants of that situation are guided by and to take developing into upholding the social law and carrying out into account all the peculiarities of the conflict and the one’s duty to maintain social order, and finding fruition of individuals involved in it. a foundation of distinguishing right and wrong with the The studies about moral competence in Brazil understanding of universal-justice principles. conducted by Bataglia (1998, 2001), in addition to our Lennick and Kiel (2005) define moral principles as pilot study (2001) showed that students in Brazil have values that cut across all cultural boundaries. Lennick moral competence scores (C-scores, MJT) lower than and Kiel argue that people overwhelmingly prefer to those of students in Europe (Lind 2000), but similar follow leaders who exhibit integrity, integrity with being to students in Mexico. Taking a closer look at this a universal human (extant across time and cultures) problem, we came to the conclusion that the lower moral principle. Other moral principles they claim and scores are connected to an interesting phenomenon: attempt to measure in their moral competency index are subjects presented different levels of moral competence responsibility, compassion, and forgiveness. according to the different dilemmas, part of the MJT. The process of decision-making plays a part in, or This phenomenon - denominated “moral segmentation” - may even define moral competence. Accordingly, one was also observed by Moreno (2000) in Mexico, but was has to take into consideration its five fundamental skills: not reported in previous studies involving other cultures. structuring decisions, assessing beliefs, assessing values, In our sample, mean C-score of 18,7 and C-scores of combining these beliefs and values into coherent choices, 26,7 for the doctor’s dilemma and 39.5 for the worker’s and having a meta-cognitive understanding of one’s dilemma seem to indicate that students in Brazil could abilities. For each skill, performance can be defined in react similarly to those in Mexico. terms of either accuracy related to an external criterion or consistency among responses (Yates, 1990). In the Kohlberg’s theory of moral development 1. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM framework the concept of moral competence is presented Moral competence refers to the affective orientation to as a certain cognitive structure, that is a skill to argue on perform altruistic behaviors toward others and the ability moral issues, to provide own grounds of a moral choice to judge moral issues logically, consistently, and at an and to explain the situations containing moral dilemmas advanced level of development. Promotion of moral (Bratus, 1985, 1994). Kohlberg defines moral competence competence means fostering the development of justice as “the capacity to make decisions and judgments which judgment and altruistic behavior in adolescents. Moreover, are moral (i.e., based on internal principles) and to act in moral competence is an area of research in Jordan that has accordance with such judgments” (Kohlberg, 1964; Colby been largely ignored. Therefore, the primary purpose of & Kohlberg, 1984; Kohlberg, 1987; Walker, DeVries this study was to determine the level of university students & Trevethan, 1987; Krebs, Vermeulen, Carpendale, & in Jordan regarding moral competence. Denton, 1991). Two basic components, causing process of 1.1 Research Objectives understanding can be defined (Sadokova, 2001). The first The following research objectives were pursued in this one is the goals of the subject of understanding, and the study: second one is the system, hierarchy of values and norms, a. To determine the level of moral competence among which the person